Taiping Rebelion
The Taiping Rebellion was a large-scale revolt against the
authority and forces of the Qing Empire in China, conducted by
an army and civil administration inspired by Hakka self-
proclaimed mystics named Hong Xiuquan and Yang Xiuqing.
Hong was an unorthodox Christian convert who declared
himself the new Messiah and younger brother of Jesus Christ.
Yang Xiuqing was a former salesman of firewood in Guangxi,
who was frequently able to act as a mouthpiece of God to direct
the people and gain himself a large amount of political power.
Hong, Yang and their followers established the Taiping
Heavenly Kingdom (also, and officially, Heavenly Kingdom
of Great Peace) and attained control of significant parts of
southern China.
Most accurate sources put the total deaths during the 15 years of
the rebellion at about 20 million civilians and army personnel
[1], although some claim the death toll was much higher (as
many as 50 million according to at least one source [2]). Some
historians estimate the combination of natural disasters
combined with the political insurrections may have cost as many
as 200 million Chinese lives between 1850 and 1865 [3]. That
figure is generally thought to be an exaggeration, as it is
approximately half the estimated population of China in
1851.[4]
Artifacts from the Taiping period can be seen at the Taiping
Kingdom History Museum in Nanjing, China.
Beginning
In the mid-1800s, China suffered a series of natural disasters,
economic problems and defeats at the hands of the Western
powers.e.g The Qing Dynasty lost their war against Great
Britain in the First Opium War. The ruling Qing dynasty
(ethnically Manchu) was seen by the Chinese majority
(ethnically Han) as ineffective and corrupt. Anti-Manchu
sentiment was strongest in the south among the laboring classes,
and it was these disaffected that flocked to the charismatic
visionary Hong Xiuquan (a member of the Hakka minority). The
sect's militarism grew in the 1840s, initially in response to its
struggle to suppress bandits, but persecution by Qing authorities
spurred the movement into a guerilla insurrection and then into
full-blown war.
The revolt began in Guangxi Province. In early January 1851, a
ten-thousand strong rebel army routed Imperial troops stationed
at the town of Jintian in what's now called the Jintian Uprising.
Heavenly Kingdom forces successfully drove back the Imperial
reprisal, and in August 1851, Hong declared the establishment of
the Heavenly Kingdom of Peace (Taiping Tianguo) with himself
as absolute ruler.
The revolt rapidly spread northward. In March 1853, between
700,000 and 800,000 Taiping soldiers took Nanjing, killing
30,000 Imperial soldiers and slaughtering thousands of civilians.
The city became the movement's capital and was renamed
Tianjing (in Wade-Giles: T'ang-chun; ‘Heavenly Capital’).
Downfall
In 1853, Hong withdrew from active control of policies and
administration. His sanity progressively eroding, he devoted
himself to meditation and more sensual pursuits, including his
private harem [6].
With their leader largely out of the picture, Taiping delegates
tried to widen their popular support with the Chinese middle
classes -- and to forge alliances with European powers -- but
failed on both counts. Inside China, the rebellion faced
resistance from the traditionalist middle class because of their
hostility to many long-standing Chinese customs and Confucian
values. The land-owning upper class, unsettled by the Taipings'
peasant mannerisms and their policy of strict separation of the
sexes, even for married couples, sided with the Imperial forces
and their Western allies.
Following a setback near Beijing, they continued to expand
westward, but spent most of their efforts maintaining their hold
in the Yangtze valley. From 1860, the kingdom's fall was rapid.
An attempt to take Shanghai in August 1860 was repulsed by
troops under the command of Frederick Townsend Ward, a force
that would later become the 'Ever Victorious Army' led by
'Chinese' Gordon. Imperial forces reorganized under the
command of Zeng Guofan and Li Hongzhang, and the Imperial
reconquest began in earnest. By early 1864 Imperial control in
most areas was well established.
Hong declared that God would defend Tianjing, but in June,
with Imperial forces approaching, he died of food poisoning as
the result of ingesting wild vegetables as the city begin to run
out of food. His body was buried in the former Ming Imperial
Palace where it was later exumed by the conquering Zheng to
verify his death, then cremated. Hong's ashes were later blasted
out of a cannon so it has no resting place as eternal punishment
for the uprising.
Four months before the fall of the Heavenly Kingdom of
Taiping, Hong Xiuquan passed the throne to Hong Tianguifu, his
eldest son. However, Hong Tianguifu was unable to do anything
to restore the Kingdom, so the Kingdom was quickly destroyed
when Nanjing fell to the Imperial armies after vicious street-by-
street fighting.
Most of the princes were executed by Qing Imperials in Jinling
Town (金陵城), Nanjing.
The Nian Rebellion ( 捻 軍 起 義 ) (1853–1868), and several
Muslim rebellions in the southwest (1855–1873) and the
northwest (1862–1877) were led by the remnants of the Taiping
rebels.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taiping_Rebellion

1900 - Boxer Rebellion
Boxer Rebellion (1900): Beginning in 1898, groups of peasants
in northern China began to band together into a secret society
known as I-ho ch'üan ("Righteous and Harmonious Fists"),
called the "Boxers" by Western press. Members of the secret
society practiced boxing and calisthenic rituals (hence the
nickname, the "Boxers") which they believed would make them
impervious to bullets.
At first, the Boxers wanted to destroy the Ch'ing dynasty (which
had ruled China for over 250 years) and wanted to rid China of
all foreign influence (which they considered a threat to Chinese
culture). When the Empress Dowager backed the Boxers, the
Boxers turned solely to ridding China of foreigners.
By late 1899, bands of Boxers were massacring Christian
missionaries and Chinese Christians. By May 1900, the rebellion
had come out of the countryside and was being waged in the
capital of Peking (now Beijing). To help their fellow
countrymen and to protect their interests in China, an
international force of 2,100 American, British, Russian, French,
Italian, and Japanese soldiers were sent to subdue the
"rebellion."
On June 18, 1900, the Empress Dowager ordered all foreigners
to be killed. Several foreign ministers and their families were
killed before the international force could protect them. On
August 14, 1900, the international force took Peking and
subdued the rebellion.
The Boxer Rebellion weakened the Ch'ing dynasty's power and
hastened the Republican Revolution of 1911 that overthrew the
boy emperor and made China a republic.
http://history1900s.about.com/od/1900s/qt/boxer.htm
Opium Wars
Opium Wars, 1839–42 and 1856–60, two wars between China
and Western countries. The first was between Great Britain and
China. Early in the 19th cent., British merchants began
smuggling opium into China in order to balance their purchases
of tea for export to Britain. In 1839, China enforced its
prohibitions on the importation of opium by destroying at
Guangzhou (Canton) a large quantity of opium confiscated from
British merchants. Great Britain, which had been looking to end
China's restrictions on foreign trade, responded by sending
gunboats to attack several Chinese coastal cities. China, unable
to withstand modern arms, was defeated and forced to sign the
Treaty of Nanjing (1842) and the British Supplementary Treaty
of the Bogue (1843). These provided that the ports of
Guangzhou, Jinmen, Fuzhou, Ningbo, and Shanghai should be
open to British trade and residence; in addition Hong Kong was
ceded to the British. Within a few years other Western powers
signed similar treaties with China and received commercial and
residential privileges, and the Western domination of China's
treaty ports began. In 1856 a second war broke out following an
allegedly illegal Chinese search of a British-registered ship, the
Arrow, in Guangzhou. British and French troops took
Guangzhou and Tianjin and compelled the Chinese to accept the
treaties of Tianjin (1858), to which France, Russia, and the
United States were also party. China agreed to open 11 more
ports, permit foreign legations in Beijing, sanction Christian
missionary activity, and legalize the import of opium. China's
subsequent attempt to block the entry of diplomats into Beijing
as well as Britain's determination to enforce the new treaty terms
led to a renewal of the war in 1859. This time the British and
French occupied Beijing and burned the imperial summer palace
(Yuan ming yuan). The Beijing conventions of 1860, by which
China was forced to reaffirm the terms of the Treaty of Tianjin
and make additional concessions, concluded the hostilities.
The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia, 6th ed. Copyright ©
2006, Columbia University Press. All rights reserved.
http://www.infoplease.com/ce6/history/A0836734.html